Access denied

Most of us have no control over it.
It gets people really upset when they run up against it.

The Internet Filter

Hopefully you aren’t trying to read this at a school computer because you’d probably have your “access denied” with most of my links below.

As a School Library Media Specialist, I am all too familiar with a great teaching moment being ruined by a blocked website. Linda Underwood’s School Library Monthly article “21st-Century Learning Blocked: What is a School Librarian to Do?” (September’s issue-not available online yet) inspired me to think more about this topic. This past week one of my colleagues was blocked from using National Geographic and another was blocked from downloading her Promethean Board software, so I knew it was time to get this done. The technology teacher and I just convinced many of these teachers to branch out and use new technology and this filter is discouraging them rapidly. Just to give you an idea of what it’s like with these filters:

We can’t use any image or video sites at all (so long to those Google Images on our web pages and for student projects and no-can-do on that great video you found on Abraham Lincoln on YouTube).

Also, no access to sites that have a shopping cart feature, like Barnes and Noble, making it a serious challenge to place orders when we are registering for conferences, ordering books and supplies.

No technical or business forums (see below)

Ironically, as I try to finalize this post, sitting at my desk after school dismisses, I am blocked from previewing the post on WordPress with the response screen below:

The site you requested is blocked under the following categories: Technical/Business Forums

You can:

Temporarily override filtering on this computer if you have an override name and password. (Note that your administrator may be notified that you’ve bypassed filtering.)

Use your browser’s Back button or enter a different Web address to continue.

__________________________________________________________

Surveying other Libraries

After suffering from blocks preventing her from using pieces of Web 2.0 in her teaching, National Board Certified Teacher and Instructional Technology Integrator Sharon Elin used her blog at edutwist.com, to conduct a survey about which popular sites were blocked and find out what other schools were allowing. Her results, displayed in colorful graphs, represent the more controversial of sites, but even simple sites that include questionable images are blocked from most students.

As Media Specialists, we are responsible, along with our Technology colleagues, for teaching about safe internet searching and strategies for effective information retrieval. As one of Elin’s responders wrote, “Teaching students about internet safety in a highly filtered environment is like teaching kids to swim in a pool without water.”

So why do we have to have them?

In 2000, Congress enacted the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA). As a result of that Act, many schools and libraries got grants for technology or joined the E-Rate program, a discounted pricing system set up by the FCC for telecommunication services, Internet access, and internal connections. One requirement of these programs was to certify that you are using computer filtering software programs to prevent the “on-screen depiction of obscenity, child pornography or material that is harmful to minors”. Nobody is really arguing that schools against schools being a safe place, away from highly offensive material. As librarians, our collection development is monitored by administration and the purchasing has to be supported with some curricular connection. What we as educators are saying is that the filters that are in place in schools are blocking educational information that could be inspiring to a child. Parents must understand that their children are losing out on dynamic learning communities created by Web 2.0 developments.

We’re being forced to bypass the filter

In most cases, educators are waiting for technical administrators to release the block after explaining how they are going to be using it in they teaching. By the way, these tech administrators are NOT teachers or librarians; they are IT people and network security experts that are now responsible for evaluating things like 5th grade students’ research on endangered species. Are we even speaking the same language? I don’t think so. In my school, those requests are only read once a week.

As a result, we’ve (older students and teachers) resorted to bypassing and unblocking the filter on our own. My Google search returned over 1 million hits when using the search terms “how to bypass school internet filters” and the responses included videos and instructions galore. A large portion of these requests could be from students as well.

is just one of the many sites giving step by step directions how to bypass the filter. They call it a “circumvention” of the block and don’t make any attempt to discuss the issue: “Whether or not these blocks are justified or a waste of time, whether they are a form of censorship or a method of managing resources, are topics that can be debated another time.” They give 3 sets of directions depending on what you’d like to use: a translation service, URL redirection service, or web proxy.

Most of the school librarians that I spoke to knew that these methods existed, but many had only used it once or twice, or were scared to be caught. The law specifically states, “An administrator, supervisor, or person authorized by the responsible authority [i.e. school, school board, local educational agency, or other authority with responsibility for administration of such school] may disable the technology protection measure concerned to enable access for bona fide research or other lawful purposes.”

Can’t we just block the students’ computers?

No. The FCC’s E-Rate program is specific that every computer have the filter engaged, “The FCC is imposing the requirements on ALL Internet-accessible computers used by the schools and libraries, including public, student, staff and administrative workstations on the Internet because the law made no distinction between school and library computers that are used only by adult staff, and those used by children or the public.” If we’re hoping schools will allow us to have more access than our students, it looks like we’ll be waiting awhile. If you refer to Elin’s survey, the communication service Skype is almost the only site that was allowed on more teacher computers than student ones. That wasn’t true in my school this month when a teacher was blocked from Skype or Google Video Chat to demonstrate communication across the world with her son who is teaching English in Korea.

Skype Chart

What can we hope for in the future?

I’m trying to be optimistic in how I think filters will be used in schools of the future. Otherwise I’d feel like my degree in Library and Information Science may not be best suited for a school library career. My dreams are for:

Trust from our Administration that we are professionals and will use the internet wisely in our teaching

Filtering programs that are created by educators and parents

Websites designing “school-safe” versions for filter approval

Open access to dynamic information online without lurking viruses and predators

Faith from the parents whose children we inspire on a daily basis that we are working to create better global citizens

15 Comments

I LOVE your assessment of the IT specialist being in charge of our students content. When working in a school, I witnessed the IT specialist block sites she was personally against for political reasons by simply saying she felt it was ‘untrustworthy.’

Ah, a reminded why I left public school teaching. The notion of someone else not being an education professional telling us what to do and filtering on our behalf. Not that it is much better in academia, where my computer is STILL locked down (no admin privileges. I can’t even update a browser or a media player like QuickTime without 20 layers of approval and putting a call to a tech to do it for me, because our administrations does not trust that “we are professionals and will use the internet wisely in our teaching.”)

So, you are certainly more optimistic than I would be. And I better end here before I really go on a rant.

Well written. It is another example of the increasing enclosure of our commons and the sterility of thought and creativity that is its result.

6.Joyb | October 19, 2009 at 5:25 pm

This is such a timely piece. I have been feeling such a weight on my shoulders with the access denied issue. We just moved to Barracuda for Net security and we are more restricted than ever.
The sad part is that the sites that the students aren’t suppose to get on, like games, lyrics, ring tones shopping is not blocked! How educational is that!

7.Jenk | October 29, 2009 at 8:12 am

The reason the Supreme Court found that CIPA was not contrary to our rights was specifically that Librarians could over-ride the filter if asked to do so. So over-riding it is our civic duty,

8.johnnysoup | May 3, 2011 at 10:04 am

I must ask administrative approval to override. It can take weeks to get a response, if I ever get a response at all.

9.John Evans | November 23, 2009 at 7:51 pm

This was an awesome blog that presented a complex and really controversial problem in a light hearted way with a creative solution. Excellent.

10.johnnysoup | May 3, 2011 at 10:03 am

I am an ESL Language Lasb instructor. Videos are a fantastic tool for language learning. My school blocks all videos. My entire class began blogging using Blogger. Six weeks into the semester the Blogger site was blocked. I would love to use slideshare, voicethread and many other tools with my students, but they are blocked too.

What really bothers me is the attitude the IT people have towards teacher needs. They have a contradictory goal to teachers. IT staff are required to keep the network safe and the best way to do that is to make it inaccessible.

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These kinds of topics are always touchy and often times it’s hard to find a solution that really works. Teachers need the freedom to teach their students without filters, and the students need to refrain from abusing the web. I say, expose them to some of the things we’re trying to keep them away from in a controlled environment. Maybe it won’t be so tempting when they realize it’s unsafe, or even boring to visit those sites.

I do not know if it’s just me or if perhaps everybody else encountering issues with your website. It appears like some of the text on your posts are running off the screen. Can somebody else please provide feedback and let me know if this is happening to them as well? This may be a problem with my browser because I’ve had this happen previously.
Thanks

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